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Afghan district governor among three killed in suicide attack

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Kunduz (Afghanistan), February 10: A district governor in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz and two other people were killed Thursday when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a government building, officials said.

Abdul Wahid Omarkhel, the chief of the Chardarah district, died on the spot when the bomber detonated his explosives-filled vest inside Omarkhel’s office compound, said Abdul Rahman Aqtaash, deputy provincial police chief.

Five people were injured in the blast, said Mahboobullah Sayedi, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Shiv Sena will oppose HC ban on PoP Ganesh idols

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Mumbai, February 10: Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray today said his party will oppose the decision of the Bombay High Court to impose a ban on the use of Plaster of Paris (PoP) for making Ganesh idols.

“Shiv Sena will never tolerate this (decision) and will lead fight against it,” Uddhav said in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ today.

The ban was imposed by the Aurangabad division bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Narendra Dabholkar, president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS), in 2005.

Cabinet approves Rs 1,100 cr fund infusion in RRBs

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New Delhi, February 10: The government today approved capital infusion of Rs 1,100 crore for Regional Rural Banks for improving their capital adequacy ratio.

“Share of Central Government that is Rs 1,100 crore will be released as per provisions made by the Department of Expenditure in 2010-11 and 2011-12,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after a Cabinet meeting here.

The issued capital of RRBs is subscribed by Central Government, State Government and sponsor banks in the proportion of 50 per cent, 15 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.

Shaky Nepal PM names cabinet, Maoists refuse to join

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Kathmandu, February 10: The political crisis dogging Nepal for seven months intensified Thursday with new Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal forced to swear in a three-member cabinet as his allies, the Maoists, refused to join the government, just a week after they had helped the communist leader come to power.

No takers for women managers in athletics

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Washington, February 10: The “glass ceiling” for women administrators in college athletics may be cracked, but is not completely broken.

Those who think double standards for women have been relegated to the past, might be disappointed by the results of the study based on whether gender roles have made a difference in hiring practices.

Heidi Grappendorf, assistant professor at North Carolina State University, and colleagues surveyed 276 athletic administrators to have them evaluate fictitious vignettes of male or female candidates for intercollegiate athletics positions.

PM sets up panel to probe ISRO-Devas agreement

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New Delhi/Bangalore, February 10: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday formed a two-member commission to probe allegations of revenue losses in the allocation of space spectrum using S-band — high value and scarce radio waves — between the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) commercial arm and a private company.

“The prime minister has formed a high-level commission, which will submit its report within a month,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters in New Delhi.

China launches whistleblower websites

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Beijing, February 10: The Chinese can now tip off the authorities on corrupt court officials through the internet.

All provincial courts have been linked to the country’s apex court’s website, designed to collect tips from people about corrupt judges and other officials in the legal system, Xinhua reported.

The whistleblowers can also see if any action is taken on their tip-offs.

“This is an important move that welcomes public supervision and battles corruption in the court system,” China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) said in a statement Wednesday.

Bomb kills at least 20 soldiers in Pakistan

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Peshawar, February 10: A suicide attack targeting a military parade on Thursday killed at least 20 soldiers in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Mardan, police said.

“It was a suicide attack. The teenager bomber was on foot and was wearing a school uniform,” Abdullah Khan, a senior police officer in Mardan told AFP.

Two military officials in Peshawar confirmed the suicide attack and the death toll.

Mardan is some 30 kilometres (20 miles) northeast of the regional capital Peshawar.

—-Agencies

Food inflation falls to 13.07 percent

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New Delhi, February 10: India’s annual food inflation dropped by nearly four percentage points to 13.07 percent for the week ended Jan 29 — the lowest level in nearly one-and-a-half months — on decline in the prices of pulses, potatoes and wheat, according to official data released Thursday.

Food inflation has declined after two consecutive weeks of sharp rise. Food inflation was 17.05 percent for the week ended Jan 22 and 15.57 percent during the previous week.

Two cases registered against seven persons

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Muzaffarnagar, February 10: Two cases have been registered against seven persons in connection with the clash which broke out between two groups over a proposed meeting to decide the fate of Darul Uloom Deoband’s chief Maulana Gulam Vastanvi.

Police said a case has been registered against four persons for allegedly assaulting journalist Tehsin Qureshi here yesterday.

Student arrested for murdering storekeeper

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Ghaziabad, February 10: A second year medical student studying in a private college in Meerut has been arrested for allegedly murdering a store keeper, police said.

Deewakar, who assisted his father in running a business of building glass and other hardware items, was taken into custody last night in Muradnagar town for the murder of R K Gupta, 52, they said.

The youth wanted Gupta, a storekeeper at HR Institute of Management here, to inflate the price of the Rs 13 lakh worth glass supplied to the institute by showing a superior quality than was given, they said.

ICC’s findings on Pakistani cricketers available outside Britain only

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Dubai, February 10: The International Cricket Council (ICC) released its findings of the investigation into corruption involving three Pakistan players, but these were not made available in Britain.

The document detailing the independent tribunal’s deliberations was not made available in England and Wales because of the criminal charges against the three banned cricketers — former captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif.

The trio was accused of spot-fixing in the Lord’s Test against England last August.

PM forms commission to probe ISRO agreement

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New Delhi, February 10: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has formed a high-level commission to look into allegations of revenue losses in the allocation of space spectrum using S-band – high value and scarce radio waves – between the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) commercial arm and a private company.

The commission will submit its report in a month’s time, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said Thursday.

The two-member commission comprises Planning Commission member B.K. Chaturvedi and Space Commission member and aerospace expert Roddam Narasimha.

Breakthrough can reduce heart failure in cancer patients

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London, February 10: A breakthrough could help reduce heart failure among cancer patients worldwide and increase survival rates, researchers claim.

Scientists at the Centre for Vision and Vascular Science, Queen’s University Belfast, have discovered the role of an enzyme which, when a patient receives chemotherapy, can cause serious damage to the heart.

This has, until now, restricted the amount of chemotherapy doses a patient can receive. But while protecting the heart, this dilutes its effectiveness in destroying cancerous tumours, the journal Cancer Research reports.

Space qualified ‘moon’ trees thriving in US

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Washington, February 10: Space travellers are living out their lives away from the limelight, after having orbited the moon 34 times on board Apollo 14.

These voyagers are not astronauts. They’re ‘moon trees’, redwood, loblolly pine, sycamore, Douglas fir, and sweetgum trees sprouted from seeds that astronaut Stuart Roosa took to the moon and back 40 years ago.

Miley Cyrus regrets smoking salvia

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New York, February 10: Teenaged star Miley Cyrus admits she regrets smoking salvia in a bong, saying she should set a better example for her young fans.

The singer-actress courted controversy when she was in November last year caught in a video smoking the herb that has hallucinogenic effects. However, there are other people her age who smoke a lot more than salvia – a natural herb that is legal in California, US, reports people.com.

Bangladeshi rape victim was whipped to death, court told

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Dhaka, February 10: The teenager who died after she was raped and whipped a 100 times following a fatwa by local clerics had suffered “heavy wounds” all over her body, said a fresh autopsy report submitted to the high court here.

Media and judicial activism has helped revive the case of the teenager who was “whipped to death”, according to a Daily Star report.

The second medical report gives gruesome details.

The police Wednesday arrested the alleged rapist, Mahbub Khan, who was on the run, from the outskirts of the national capital.

US now focused on LeT as it ‘could pose a threat’

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Washington, February 10:The United States has “focused” its attention on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terror outfit behind the Mumbai terror attacks, as it “could pose a threat” to the US and Europe, according to a senior US official.

“In Pakistan, we remain focused on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which remains a threat to a variety of interests in South Asia,” Michael Leiter, Director of National Counter terrorism Centre told a House panel Tuesday.

India thanks Afghanistan after rescue of consular employee

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New Delhi, February 09: India Wednesday expressed its gratitude to the Afghan authorities after a kidnapped local employee of the Indian consulate in Jalalabad was rescued.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said that a Afghan employee of the Jalalabad consulate was kidnapped near his home on the evening of Feb 5, during which he also received bullet injuries.

The Afghan authorities immediately launched a search and rescue mission and located the abductors near Jalalabad.

Categories Uncategorised

Only passport holders can apply for Haj this year

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Chandigarh, February 09: The Haj Committee of India has decided that only passport holders will be asked to apply for Haj 2011, a member of the panel said today.

“All those desirous of going for Haj should, therefore, apply for international passports immediately and obtain these before the formal announcement of Haj 2011,” Haj Committee of India, member, Aftab Ahmed said today.

Ahmed, who is also an MLA, said only passport holders would be entertained at the time of Qurrah (draw of lots).

India begins 1.2 billion population headcount

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New Delhi, February 09: Some 2.7 million officials fanned out across the country Wednesday to begin the mammoth exercise of headcounting India’s estimated 120 crore (1.2 billion) people, with President Pratibha Patil being the first citizen to be enumerated here.

The nationwide exercise, which will continue over the next three weeks, began as a group of officials, called enumerators, visited the president at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Census enumerator Rita collected information on a number of characteristics about the president’s household.

Two children killed every day in Afghan war in 2010

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Kabul, February 09: At least two children lost their lives every day in the Afghan conflict in 2010, a rights group said Wednesday, blaming the Taliban-led insurgents for two thirds of the deaths.

“About 739 children lost their lives in the conflict-related security incidents in Afghanistan from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2010,” said the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), an independent group that has been conducting annual reports on civilian casualties since 2008.

Karunanidhi will be jailed soon: Subramanian Swamy

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New Delhi, February 09: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi would be jailed soon for his involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy said Wednesday.

“Karunanidhi and Raja are equally involved in the telecom scam. We are starting a kind of revolution in Tamil Nadu demanding stringent punishment for the culprits and you will see the results soon,” Swamy said during an interaction with Delhi University students.

Categories Uncategorised

Microsoft to launch Windows Phone 7 this year

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Hyderabad, February 09: Microsoft plans to launch Windows Phone 7 in India this year. The software major’s India development centre has fine-tuned the innovative applications of the search engine Bing for its global launch in April, an official said here Wednesday.

“It will be in a few months but the date has not yet been decided,” Amit Chatterjee, managing director of Microsoft India Development Centre (MSIDC), told reporters.

CM’s absence sparks Opposition walkout

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Lucknow, February 09: The absence of Chief Minister and Leader of the House Mayawati during initiation of a debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address in the Uttar Pradesh assembly today led to walkouts by the SP and the BJP and adjournment of the House twice for over half-an-hour.

Charging the government with undermining established democratic traditions, Leader of the Opposition Shivpal Singh Yadav refused to initiate a debate on the motion of thanks in the House in the absence of the Chief Minister.